Reference no: EM133480464
Goals of the Practice Activity:
Explore news-search environments
Practice advanced news searching strategies
Review the distinction between "news" and "opinion" in news sources
Practice citing news sources
Here are the instructions for the News Search Practice Activity. In order to successfully complete this Practice Activity, you will need to first read the document, News Search Reading. Find specific examples here: News versus Opinion Examples
Before completing your (required) Web Search Activity, working through this News Search Practice will help you to discern various types of sources available on the web.
Explore news-search environments
Practice advanced news searching strategies
Review the distinction between "news" and "opinion" in news sources
Practice citing news sources
News Search Practice (this is not graded; treat it as preparation for the Web Search Activity):
Question 1. Copy your research question onto a blank document and highlight, boldface, or underline its key terms or concepts. For example, Will open educational resources replace commercial textbooks?
Question 2. Brainstorm a little to come up with related alternate search terms for each of the question's core components or concepts. Create a list of these terms. For example:
Will open educational resources replace commercial textbooks?
Open educational resources commercial textbooks
OER for-profit textbook publishing
"open textbooks" retail educational publishing
"open education materials royalty-based
You will come up with new terms once you begin searching (be sure to add them to your list!), so it's okay to begin with just a few.
Question 3. Search for relevant newspaper sources through Nexis Uni or Google News, or both. Each database contains sources other than newspaper sources. Please review the instructional materials in the Week One reading to ensure that the sources you retrieve for this activity are newspaper sources, specifically.
Question 4. Identify two newspaper sources that seem potentially relevant to your project, and write complete and correct citations for them. Information about how to cite newspaper sources is included in the Week One reading.
Question 5. Identify each of your two sources as "NEWS" or "OPINION." (If you'd like, you can be more specific: for example, "news analysis," "feature," "editorial," etc. are some other options. See the "News Search Reading: "Using News Sources in your Research" document linked above.) Identifying sources by type will involved actually reading, or at least skimming, the articles. If you are unsure how to categorize one of your sources, ask for help from your instructor, classmates, or a National University librarian.